


There's No Such Thing As Elegators

by psocoptera



Category: Princeless
Genre: Chromatic Yuletide 2012, Dragons, Friendship, Gen, Misses Clause Challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-18
Updated: 2012-12-18
Packaged: 2017-11-21 10:26:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/596656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psocoptera/pseuds/psocoptera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sparky, Adrienne, and Bedelia have an encounter in the grasslands.</p>
            </blockquote>





	There's No Such Thing As Elegators

**Author's Note:**

  * For [innerbrat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/innerbrat/gifts).



The day is so close to perfect.

The sun is warm. The wind is steady. Her wings, which had been going limp with disuse hanging around the tower, are strong again, hitting the air hard on every stroke. Her girl and her girl's new friend are a pleasant weight on her back.

But it's not quite perfect. Really perfect would be a new friend for herself, too. She hasn't had someone to fly with in ages, since she was little more than a hatchling, before she started tower training. She's not _lonely_ , not now that she's got her girl to talk to. But with another dragon, she could race, play follow-and-lead...

Lost in thoughts of flying games, she almost doesn't notice the tapping on her back, until it's joined by a meatier thump.

"Mrr?" she asks, twisting her head around to look at her girl.

"Sparky!" the girl yells, her little voice half-ripped away by the wind. "We have to go back! We think we saw an elegator down there!"

"Hruh," she sighs. She's pretty sure there's no such thing as elegators. But her girl is all gleam-eyed and grinning, and she has no way to say no to that. And they have to stop every so often anyways for her and her friend to do human business in the bushes. So she pulls in her wingtips and starts to spiral back in the direction her girl is pointing, leaving an ear cocked back for further directions.

"You're sure it wasn't just an elephant," her girl is asking.

"It had a long snout and sharp pointy teeth," her friend insists.

"You could really see teeth from this high?"

"It yawned, and the sun hit them. They were _big_ teeth."

"Maybe it was just an alligator. You said it was mostly in the grass."

"An alligator as big as Sparky here? It had to be an elegator."

"There, land there!" the friend shouts, pointing frantically.

She back-wings to the ground, mud squishing up between her toes as she lands. They're in a narrow bare strip, barely a body-length wide, between a sluggish river and the tall grass.

Her girl hops down to the ground.

"Wait," her friend asks, suddenly hesitant, "If it's still around, wouldn't we be safer up here?"

Her girl grins again. "We have my sword, and your hammer, and I'm sure Sparky would fight an elegator for us, right, girl?"

"Gow," she snorts. Of course she would. It's nothing they ever taught her, in tower training. Tower training was all about humans. Fight the humans in the metal suits, never _ever_ hurt the human in the fluttery dress. The first time her girl had put on the metal suit, she'd had a horrible queasy moment while her training whirled inside of her, telling her to flame, to strike, even though she'd _seen_ her girl picking up the metal pieces just moments earlier. She'd had to close her eyes and just listen to the chirp of her girl's voice until she was sure she had herself under control.

Tower training had never covered a lot of things - girls wearing metal, saddles, now elegators. But she figures she's up for the challenge.

The girls have wandered down the bank a bit and are poking around in the mud.

"Do you figure they slither like alligators, or stump along like elephants?" the friend is asking.

"I don't know," her girl answers, "I didn't think they existed, until you saw one."

"Ooh," her friend shouts. "Ooh, here! I think I found a print! Look at those big toes!"

Her girl squints at it. "No," she says, shaking her head, "Sorry, that's just one of Sparky's."

The friend looks at her. "No it's not," she says, "She hasn't moved from where she landed, except to settle herself a little. She hasn't come down this far."

As one, the girls slowly look at her, at each other, and at the tall grass in front of them.

The grass rustles.

Her girl draws her sword, but she's already kicking off, throwing herself in one swoop of wing between the girls and the grass, so that the darting maw of the other dragon meets her shoulder instead of her girl.

It backs up, back partway into the grass, and she takes a ready stance, up on her feet, wings spread wide. She sizes it up, noticing everything she couldn't in that first lunging ambush. It's about her size, a little narrower, snakier. Its wings are furled tight to its back, for crawling through the grass, and one of its horns is broken. It's a dull swampy green, that might be natural coloring, or might be really needing a bath - she knows she's looking dingy herself. 

"D-d-d-dragon!" the friend is chattering.

"Shush," her girl mutters, "I've seen princes do this, but never successfully..."

She takes a quick look away from the other dragon and sees that her girl is starting to edge around her, sword drawn and ready.

"Pf," she snorts. Who's protecting who, here? She looks back. The other dragon has taken a step forward while she wasn't watching it, but now it drops its head, suggesting that it's not going to fight.

"Oopss?" it says. "Ssorry. Didn't realize they were yourss."

"Mrumph," she growls. It backs that step up again.

"What's it saying?" the friend whispers to her girl, next to her.

"I don't know," her girl answers, "I'm trying. It... sounds different than Sparky."

In the corner of her eye, her girl is making the scrunched listening face she used to make when she tried to understand her. She realizes she doesn't like it, seeing her make that face for another dragon.

"Wrrrr," she says, "Nar."

"You're the sstranger here" the other dragon answers. "I live here. Not here in the mud," it shudders, nose to tail. "We've got a nice dry roosst on the sslope of a ssleeping volcano, a few hour'ss flight of here. I wass out hunting."

"Maow?" she asks.

"Oh, yess," it says, "Lotss of uss. Ssome esscaped..." it gestures at itself with one graceful claw, "Ssome hatched right there."

"Ffah! Pmf!"

"I think it's telling her it comes from a sort of dragon village," her girl murmurs, interpreting for her friend. "At least from what Sparky's saying."

The other dragon bobs its head, and she feels herself smile back, and then it's weird, to feel herself making face-shapes at another dragon, so she bobs her head too. It's been a long time, since they took her away from the other hatchlings, and it had been really important whether the trainers were happy, and going to give her dinner, or angry, and not, so she'd gotten really used to humans and their faces. She wonders if she should try to explain all that.

The other dragon lashes its tail in a friendly way. It's come up out of its wary crouch into a neutral stance, and she mirrors it automatically, dropping from her fighting readiness. She takes a hesitant step forward. It does too. Another step, and another step each, and then they're sniffing each other, nosing curiously at each other's ruffs and forelocks. It's a female, like she is - a nest-sister, a friend. They back up and whuffle at each other amiably.

"Awww," she hears from the girls.

"Mep?" she asks.

"Of coursse you can," the other dragon answers, "We alwayss welcome other ssurvivorss."

She wants to do a barrel-roll and a loop-de-loop all at once - a friend! And a whole colony of more!

"Jusst eat your ssnackss," the other dragon adds, "And we can take off."

"ROWPH!"

Her girl has been leaning on her, one hand on her haunch, but now she jerks away.

The other dragon lifts a wing in confusion. "What do you want them for, then?"

"Nuroww," she tries to explain. She hadn't just come across them, they're _with her_.

"What?" the friend whispers. "What's going on?"

"Humanss usse uss," the other dragon says. "Humanss hurt uss." She tilts her head, to draw attention to the broken horn. "They're not petss."

She tries to think of how to explain it. If you found a ruby, sparkling in the sun, you obviously wouldn't just leave it there, you would scoop it up for your hoard. "Bn." Her girl is _hers_. She found her. And there are lots of rubies, and only one of her. "Mmf."

Her girl murmurs "love you too, Sparks".

The friend makes confused and frustrated noises.

"Well, you can't bring her to the roosst," the other dragon says. "Leave them, or sstay away."

"Rrrrfffff."

She looks back and forth between the other dragon and her girl. Dragon friends but no girl? Girl, but no dragon friends? It's like something's got hold of each of her wings and started pulling, and she's tearing apart in the middle.

"I think Sparky can't take us to the dragon village," her girl finally explains to her friend.

"Oh, well," the friend answers, "Let's saddle up and get back to saving your sister then."

"Bedelia!" her girl says, "We can't just assume she's going to pick us."

"Pick?" the friend says. "She's _your_ dragon. She can't _pick_."

"I don't _own_ her," her girl says, "And maybe I think she should go!"

"What?" the friend squawks, starting to yell. "Are you crazy? You want her to leave us here, in the middle of nowhere, miles from anywhere, grass over our heads, probably full of dragons stalking us?"

"No," her girl says back, "I want her to be happy! And if that means we go on foot, then we will _deal_ with it!"

"Mirr?" she asks quietly.

Her girl turns to her. "Oh, Sparky," she says. "Of course I would miss you." She sets a small warm palm on her snout. "But I don't want to _make_ you stay. Of course it would be easier to save my sisters with you along. But if I don't give you a choice, that's as bad as, as putting people in towers." Her girl shifts her hands to either side of her head, and leans forward to rest her forehead against her face. "This could be a home for you," she says. "This could be your chance."

She breathes in the smell of her girl, metal suit and human food and the flower smell of her hair, and remembers the first time she saw her.

The boy had hauled her out of the carriage, and she had been as limp and floppy as the dummies they'd used on the farm for training. But the training dummies in the dresses had always had yellow yarn on their heads. She liked the black curls, the way they were different; they made it seem more real, that this was really for real, and not another training exercise.

The boy had dragged the girl up the stairs, and she had curled up around the base of the tower just like she was supposed to. She had dozed off, and then jerked awake to the sound of yelling and thumps of things being thrown around.

She had poked her head through the window curiously. Her girl had frozen, and dropped the book in her hand. She had thought she might shriek and run to the far wall - that was what visitors to the farm usually did. But instead the girl's eyes had widened, and she had stepped forward.

"Hi," she had said, and taken another step. "Hi there." She had taken one more step, until she was barely more than a human's arm-length away.

In all her time at the farm, no human had ever come near her without a sword or a spear or other pointy metal thing. 

"Wuroo," she had said. She didn't expect an answer; none of the humans on the farm had ever understood her, and sometimes they got angry when she talked to them. One of the older dragons had told her that it was hopeless, there was something wrong with human ears.

Her girl, though, had cocked her head to one side.

"You're obviously my dragon," she had said, squinching her face thoughtfully. "Of course, tower, dragon, have to have the whole works. Have you been here long?"

"Pf," she had answered.

The girl narrowed her eyes. "Again," she had ordered, and then caught herself. "Sorry, could you say that again for me, please?" She had smiled, then, a winning smile she remembered from the nicer trainers, the smile that wanted her to get something right.

"Ppfff," she'd said carefully.

The girl's smile had sharpened into a fierce grin.

"Gotcha," she had said, "Nice to meet you." And she had taken that final step forward into arm's reach, and carefully but firmly reached out her little hand to touch.

There's a puff of air as the other dragon shakes her wings, and she's jarred out of memory back to the present day, back to the river and the mud and the grass and her girl and a whole colony of dragons somewhere. Her girl steps back, and she can see her doing the little things humans do when they have to be brave, setting her shoulders, lifting her chin, tightening her mouth. She hadn't done any of those things when she met her, but she's doing them now, to get ready to say goodbye.

"Hv," she tells the other dragon. "Qrph."

Her girl sucks in a breath. "Really, Sparky? Are you sure?"

"You can't be sseriouss," the other dragon says. "You've losst your ssenssess. Imprinted like a losst gossling. Sstockholm Ssyndrome. Dragonss don't belong with humanss!"

She shrugs. It's not that she wants to be with _humans_ \- she would never go back to the farm, or to tower training - but her girl is something special. And she would drop her shiniest ruby in the mud before she'd abandon her here.

"Wauw!"

"Okay, Sparky" her girl agrees, "Let's get going!"

"Flying time!" her friend cheers. Her girl scrambles up onto her back, leaning down to give a hand to her friend.

She looks at the other dragon.

"Fau," she offers.

"Me? Come with _you?_ And your humanss?" She flicks her tail dismissively. "Repulssive." She turns her back, and slinks back into the grass.

Her girl gives her a little pat. "I'm sorry it didn't work out for you," she says.

"Nm," she answers. At least she hadn't had to fight an elegator.

With one big leap, she's in the air again, and a few hard wing-beats get her up to flying height. The sun is warm, the wind is steady. The grass rolls underneath them.

Somewhere, on the slope of a volcano, there are other dragons. Maybe someday she'll find them. But right now she's with her girl, and they're going to save her sisters, and there is nowhere she would rather be.


End file.
